Hans Urs von Balthasar won the appreciation of Paul VI and John Paul II for (among other things) his contribution to the debate about the nature and mission of the ordained priesthood. The essays in the present volume, which were written between 1968-1979, illustrate an important dimension of that contribution: Balthasar’s theological grounding of priestly spirituality in the person of Jesus, who is both the founder and the living center of the ministry. Priestly existence, Balthasar shows, flows from the Lord’s will to entrust the gift of office to men, with all their weaknesses, and so to draw them into the dynamic of his own Eucharistic self-offering.